Pixel Prides

The Pride Movement in Cyberspace

By Joshua W. Rivers

In June 2004, a group of roughly 100 crimson-clad people met in front of their digital town’s city hall for a demonstration. Muscles exposed, the demonstrators huddled together in a mass of rouge with but one goal in mind: to show that LGBT people exist in their world and others like it, in the small corner of cyberspace known as massively multiplayer online games (MMOs). This band of players and the accompanying queer dialogue drew a massive crowd of onlookers and participants. Using this momentum, the group’s leader, Benjamin Bon Temps, decided to found a community in the game world in order to draw attention to LGBT gamers and to create a space free from the far too frequent homophobic language and bullying that one encounters online. In the present day, this small group of 100 has grown into a global, albeit primarily North American, organization of over 3,000 members with a noticeable presence in six MMOs: The Rough Trade Gaming Community (RTGC).

Every year since 2004, RTGC has organized a Pixel Pride in each of the games they play. At its core, a Pixel Pride is a pride parade held by LGBT gamers in an MMO, a march from one point of the game’s world to another by a procession of characters organized into various ‘floats’, both political and colorful. While each Pixel Pride is unique to its own world and shaped by ‘local’ tradition, they are united in their desire to raise awareness of the LGBT community in online games while also giving queer players a space to meet new friends and to express themselves.Full of glitter, fireworks, and political chants, Pixel Prides are the highlight of many MMO players’ Pride season. These virtual pride parades exhibit the showmanship and extravagance of an actual world parade, but with one unique caveat: they allow their participants to remain largely anonymous.

As we continue to fight for a world where no one needs to fear coming out, Pixel Prides provide a platform for closeted members of the LGBT community to meet a group of gamers willing to accept and to befriend them regardless of their circumstances.

Although an avatar is a part of one’s identity, players are still able to remain largely anonymous in the actual world while attending a Pixel Pride. In the game, there is a sort of blur of names and digital faces. One’s character name may be on full display for anyone watching a Pixel Pride, but no one knows what one’s actual world name or location is. By playing a video game, several closeted members of the queer community have taken part in Pixel Prides. Bon Temps, along with the other RTGC leadership, routinely receives letters of gratitude for the guild’s role in creating a space of self-expression otherwise unavailable to those in the closet, due to family situations or, in one particularly grave case, the threat of criminal prosecution. As we continue to fight for a world where no one needs to fear coming out, Pixel Prides provide a platform for closeted members of the LGBT community to meet a group of gamers willing to accept and to befriend them regardless of their circumstances. Pixel Prides allow those who cannot attend a pride parade in the actual world to attend one in a virtual world.

One of the aims of each Pixel Pride is to show that LGBT gamers are a part of the broader gaming community and deserve respect. They shed light on the grim reality of homophobic slurs and bullying that queer gamers face online, while also celebrating queer victories. In the online game Final Fantasy XIV, for example, RTGC organized a Pixel Pride to laud the implementation of ingame same sex marriage. Marching through one of the game world’s three major cities in rainbow colored armor, the paradegoers indicate their support for the designers’ decision to ensure virtual marriage equality.

In 2004, the very first Pixel Pride was held in the virtual world of City of Heroes. Credit: Benjamin Bon Temps and RTGC. City of Heroes © 2012 NC Interactive, Inc. All rights reserved.

Final Fantasy XIV gamers march in rainbow file to celebrate the designers’ implementation of in-game marriage equality in 2014. Credit: RTGC. F inal Fantasy XIV © 2010 - 2017 Square Enix C o ., L td . All Rights Reserved.

Pixel Prides are a highlight of Pride season in many online game worlds. With all the fanfare of their actual world counterparts, these parades are not only a safe space for LGBT gamers, but also a means to draw attention to the rampant homophobia and online bullying many LGBT gamers face. If you’re looking to celebrate who you are and to demonstrate for LGBT visibility, inclusion, and equality on- and offline, all while meeting new friends and exploring fantasy worlds, try logging in for an RTGC-hosted Pixel Pride during this year’s pride season. For more information on the Rough Trade Gaming Community and Pixel Prides, please visit: http://rtgc.enjin.com/

Pixel Prides have become an annual phenomenon in numerous MMOs, including Guild Wars 2. Credit: Benjamin Bon Temps and RTGC. Guild Wars 2 © 2010–2017 ArenaNet, LLC. All rights reserved.

A native of Yorktown, Virginia, Joshua W. Rivers is a researcher at PrideUnited in Amsterdam. As an aspiring academic and avid gamer, he studies the intersection of the queer community and video games, while regularly writing about and streaming his own adventures in cyberspace. You can find him at a quaint local café or in an end-game raid. He may be reached at josh@prideunited.org or via his livestream at https://www.twitch.tv/naeydil